“A must-read for anyone who wants to understand why they behave as they do.” —Art Markman, Ph.D., author of Smart Thinking

Do you play to win? Or do you play not to lose?

As Tory Higgins and Heidi Grant Halvorson have discovered in their work at Columbia University’s Motivation Science Center, everything we do is motivated either by a desire to be better off or to simply hang on to what we’ve got. And understanding the simple but crucial difference between the two can empower you to motivate yourself and influence everyone around you. Examining how promotion/prevention focus applies across a wide range of situations—from selling products to managing employees to raising children to getting a second date—Halvorson and Higgins show us how to identify, change, and use focus to get the results we want.

We all want to experience pleasure and avoid pain. But there are really two kinds of pleasure and pain that motivate everything we do. If you are promotion-focused, you want to advance and avoid missed opportunities. If you are prevention-focused, you want to minimize losses and keep things working. And as Tory Higgins has found in his groundbreaking research, if you understand how people focus, you have the power to motivate yourself and everyone around you.

Showing how promotion/prevention focus applies across a wide range of situations from selling products to managing employees to raising children to getting a second date, Halvorson and Higgins show us how to identify focus, how to change focus, and how to use focus exactly the right way to get results. Short, punchy, and prescriptive, Focus will help you see not just what’s going on around you— but what’s underneath.

Visit the author’s website at www.heidigranthalvorson.com for a special pre-order giveaway.

“Insightful, thought-provoking, and highly practical, Focus is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants more deeply to understand how to motivate others.”
—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

“Focus is an exciting and important new book that brings motivational science to life in a remarkably practical way.”
—Daniel Gilbert, Ph.D., author of Stumbling on Happiness

“Nothing has changed the research conversation in social psychology in the last decade as much as Tory Higgins’s ideas about promotion and prevention. This book shows how promotion and prevention touch every aspect of our daily life from work to parenting.”
—Chip Heath and Dan Heath, authors of Switch and Made to Stick

“In anything-but-routine fashion, the authors describe a fundamental difference in the way we seek and achieve success. Their description is so wide-ranging yet integrative, so entertaining yet instructive that I am able to offer an assertion of my own: If you are one of those people who want to be successful, you should read this book.”
—Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., author of Influence: Science and Practice

“Every once in a while a book comes out that changes the way you see yourself, other people, and the world. This is one of those books. Read it.”
—Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done

“Most people think that motivation gets them energized to act. Focus lifts up the hood on the motivational system and shows how competing motivations to achieve positive outcomes and avoid negative ones influence work, love, and parenting in unexpected ways. The book is filled with practical examples that make it a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why they behave as they do.”
—Art Markman, Ph.D. author of Smart Thinking: Three essential keys to solve

Focus

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By Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. and E. Tory Higgins Ph.D.